“Everyone put on a good performance though. Three of our rinks were quite close.”

At afternoon tea, Central Wendouree was 24 shots down. They worked hard to get within 12 shots of the top team, before Sebastopol came home strongly.

Sebastopol skipper Ian Warner said he was happy with how the side was doing, but it was a tight game for most of the match.

“Brad Oates’ and Andrew Myers’ rinks got on top late to ensure a victory,” Warner said.

Myers’ rink finished 27 to 19 against John Glenton and Oates’ rink finished 32 to 22 against Eric Kosloff.

John Nunn’s rink was leading by one in the last end, after an unlucky bowl knocked the jack into the ditch, so Sebastopol dropped two shots to lose by one.

Warner said his own rink had an eventful ending, too.

“I led by one shot in the last end up against Col Johnson, before Johnson knocked the jack into the ditch to draw the rink and get one point for Central Wendouree,” he said.

The teams drew on 20.

In another Ballarat side head-to-head, Victoria beat Webbcona with split rinks 96 to 87 at Webbcona. Ash McArthur’s and Bret Mahoney’s rinks won in narrow victories of three shots against Victoria, and Victoria’s Jarrod Burt also only won marginly by two shots.

It was Barry Clark’s rink that earned the win for Victoria, finishing 13 shots up against Ben McArthur 30 to 17.